Chuck Nan talks Fifty Years By the Bay: The San Francisco Giants 1958-2007

This is a big brash history of the San Francisco Giants. Nan relives the key moments, teams and players from 1958 to 2007. Nan highlights individual game feats, significant seasonal performances, and some wonderful career achievements. It includes features on all of the great Giant players- Book Passage

Chuck Nan

Chuck Nan is a sports journalist and broadcaster in the Bay Area. Nan received his Bachelorâ€™s Degree in Finance from Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. For many years, he worked in the financial services industry, holding positions in operations, customer service and project management.

Good afternoon, I think we are ready to get started now, thanks for coming to Book Passage and thanksfor coming out and supporting Independent Bookstores, we really appreciate it. And just as aprecaution as we always start our author introductions, if you have a cell phone could you please turn itoff or turn it on to vibrate, so we don't have any interruptions. Thank you. My name is Steve andthanks again for coming.A little bit about today's book. We have Chuck Nan with this today, this afternoon and the book is called"Fifty Years by the Bay". It covers all the significant memories in San Francisco's Giant history. Thisdetailed account commences with the move to West in 1958, through the 40 seasons that CandlestickPark to a new beginning at Pac Bell Park into the new millennium and on to the 2007 season. The bookrelives the key moments, team players and figures that made the franchise great. All the memorableand celebrated moments are chronicled including through the years with the team, 1958 to 2007. Littlebit about Chuck, Chuck is a true native of San Francisco. Chuck grew up just 10 minutes fromCandlestick Park. ''The Giants'' were his first sports love at age six and still are. He has been a seasonticket holder for many years and seen several 100 games in his life, wow. Chuck has met many a frigidsummer night at the Stick watching his beloved team playing. Nan resides with his family in Martinez,California. So ladies and gentlemen won't you please welcome Chuck Nan.Well thank you for that introduction Steve, I really appreciate it. And it's great to be here at the BookPassage and we have a beautiful day outside, that's a great baseball day. And too bad the Giants,aren't home today. They are on TV tonight. I just want to talk a little bit today about what theinspiration for the book was for me; to write this piece of work, go through a brief history of the teamthrough the years and then focus most of all on the players. Well I think the players are what has reallymade this legacy great of the Giants and their 50 years in San Francisco.As Steve said in my biography I have been a fan of the Giants since I was six years old. And growingup not too far from Candlestick Park I attended many games with my parents as a young boy andfollowed the Giants at that time; pretty much the only way you could was via the newspapers, soreading The Chronicle and The Examiner and following the team via that method. And I grew up agreat admiration for the game itself and the players and the efforts that they put forth. So as I grewolder the fever actually increased a great deal, more and more and I think it's the greatest game in theworld and it's something that I really still enjoy doing on a nice summer day.1999 let us flash forward to 1999 when the Giants were playing their last season at Candlestick Parkbefore they moved into their beautiful new home which is now called the AT&T Park; the Pacific BellPark at that time. And the San Francisco Chronicle newspaper actually published the top 10 momentsin San Francisco Giants history at Candlestick Park. And as I started to read these great moments Irealized that I had been at I think six or seven of the actual 10 in my lifetime. And so I started puttingmy own list together of great games and heroic efforts that I have seen out at the park over the years.And the list got bigger and bigger and really didn't really know what I was going to do with the list.And I started adding detail to the to these events and originally at that time I was a free lance sportsjournalist, so I had thought about writing an article for a historical sports periodical. But with all theinformation that I had it was just really too big to include in one article. So what I decided to do at thattime was to write a book. And when I started putting the book together, I realized that 2007 this year,this season in San Francisco was the Giants' Golden Anniversary. So for the last five and a half yearsor so I set 2007 as my focus and put together the book and kept current with the current history if youwill at the Giants and really analyzed and looked at all the great moments from the past 50 years. Sothat was my inspiration for the book.So when we talk about 'The Giants' in the last 50 years, we talk first of all about 'their move west'from New York. They were originally based in New York City - Coogan's Bluff, New York, playing inthe polo grounds and started back in 1883 and then were a formidable member of the NationalLeague in the early part of the last century winning several World Championships. And then as theygot to the 50s there was a growing need for a better park for them to play and the polo grounds wasquite old and just really wasn't suited to fans having a great experience and attendance started to lagquite a bit. And their owner at that time was a man named Horace Stoneham. And Horace Stonehamwas actually one of the first who realized this need to move his club and originally a lot of people don'tknow about the Giants Minor League affiliate at the time was 'The Minneapolis Millers' in Minnesota.And Willie Mays actually played for 'The Minneapolis Millers' in the early 50s. So he had had somediscussions with the city of Minneapolis and they were going to build a stadium which they ended upactually building later on for the Minnesota Twins when they moved there I think in 1961. So theGiants were looking to move further west and at about the same time there was that other team in NewYork, 'The Brooklyn Dodgers', their hated rivals and their owner was also looking to move his teamand actually had his eye on Los Angeles. And at that time you got to realize that there wasn't anyMajor League Baseball west of St. Louis and that was it. It was the Eastern East Coast and theCincinnati Cleveland mid-west area there, St. Louis and so forth. So the Pacific Coast League wasvery strong in the west but there was no "Major League Baseball."So after some discussions with Stoneham they decided that they would both move west to California,'The Giants' would settle in San Francisco and 'The Dodgers' would settle in Los Angeles. So andthat rivalry still still bruise today here all these years later. So in 58' San Francisco welcomes theteam with open arms. The Giants had superstar player in their midst; already Willie Mays, that wasvery well known. 1958 also was the first year of Orlando Cepeda who went on to be a great player forthe team. 1959 we see Willie McCovey coming along and really the nucleus for one of the greatteams of the National League in the 1960s. Juan Marichal came along in 1960; Gaylord Perry camealong in 62'-63'. So we see that the nucleus of the team with five Hall of Fame players. So verycompetitive through out the decade of the 60s although every year there seem team to be one otherteam, while that the 'The Dodgers' or 'The Milwaukee Braves' or 'The St. Louis Cardinals' that wouldfinish a couple of games ahead of 'The Giants'. They did make it to the World Series in 1962; and wentdown to the last out the last game, game seven against the New York Yankees and lost one to nothing.So the team was competitive throughout the rest of the 60s and then long about 1970 you start seeingthe veterans start to age, they had traded Orlando Cepeda in the mid 60s in one of the worst trades thatthey had ever made. Marichal, Mays, McCovey were growing old. They made a horrible trade ofGaylord Perry. They traded him far to prematurely and he went on to great success, went to some otherclubs, and you see Horace Stoneham, the owner, not really willing to spend a lot of money ondevelopment. The Giants had been really known for their development in the Minor League systemsback in the 40s and the 50s. They were the first to tap the Latin American area for players. The Aloubrothers Matty, Felipe and Jesus, Orlando Cepeda all came out of the Dominican RepublicPuerto Rico area. So we see the club aging and in the mid 70s we see all of those players traded awayand then we see a really downtime and really a limbo for the team. They did try to participate in thefree agency when that became a law at 1977. They didn't really have a lot of success in the decisionsthat they made there. So that cloud that dark cloud really carried with the team into the 80s; and thenin the mid 1980's we see a little bit of resurgence. The Giants brought along a lot of young a youngcore of Rookies that include Will Clark, Matt Williams, Robby Thompson got some good support inpitching. They had a great manager that really inspired the team and Roger Craig, a great GeneralManager and Al Rosen who was a baseball man. So and Bob Lawry put together a good goodmanagement structure there and the team became very competitive in the late 80's and even made it tothe World Series in 1989; to play the Oakland Athletics in the famed Earthquake Series. And then thatsuccess carried into the early 90's.And then in 1993 we see native son, Barry Bonds come home native of the Bay Area and the son ofanother great Giant Bobby Bonds. And basically for the last 15 years or so that we have been watchingthe Giants, it's been Bonds, Bonds, Bonds. There have been a lot of other players that have come alongtoo as as part of his supporting cast. But it should also be noted that the Giants never really havegotten over that. Last time in 2002 they had a three games to two lead on the Los Angeles Angels orthe California Angels at that time. And had some twist of fare as I put them turned against them ingame six. And then the the series also went to game seven and and they lost. So heartbreaks for allGiants fans. So that's basically the team history.So well I wanted to focus on where the the successes about some of the players that I havementioned, some of them already. Also, I should say if you would like to chime in with any questions orcomments through this, please feel free. If you have another player that or a situation or a game or anaccomplishment that you feel I have I have neglected, please feel free to go ahead and mention that.And we'll also have a discussion at the at the end of this.Probably one of the first memorable moments for a lot of Giants fans was when Willie McCovey cameon the scene. July 29th, 1959, he was called up from AAA Phoenix. He flew all night didn't had verylittle sleep. And next thing he know he was in the starting line up on July 30th of 1959 against RobinRoberts of the Philadelphia Phillies, a future Hall of Fame pitcher and the young rookie responded bygoing a perfect four for four; two singles and two triples helping his team beat the Phillies. 1961, atMilwaukee's County Stadium we see perhaps the signature game of Willie Mays's career. April 30th,1961 Willie; I think became the sixth player in Major League history to hit four home runs in a nineinning game. That was also a game where the team hit eight home runs in setting a team record. And Ibelieve Hank Aaron also hit two home runs in that game. So you had some of the greatest sluggers inthe history of the game playing in that one game.1960's I said Juan Marichal came along in the mid summer in 1960. His first outing in the MajorLeague, he throws a one hit shut out against the Philadelphia Phillies, just a remarkable debut for theDominican Dandy who went on to a tremendous career with the Giants, a Hall of fame career. In 1962the World Series Yeah, pitcher Jack Stanford had a 16 game winning streak. 1963 we see JuanMarichal throw a no-hitter against the Houston Colt 45's at that time. And a little known fact about thatgame was it was played at Candlestick Park and at that time the Giants had two great first basemen.They had Orlando Cepeda and Willie McCovey. And they some what altered alternated them at firstbase. And McCovey played a lot of outfield. He played a lot of left field at that time. And there was aball that was hit to the left field fence late in that game, and Willie McCovey was not known for hisgreat fielding, especially in the outfield because of his lack of mobility with his knees and so forth,made a a game saving catch or a no-hit saving catch for Marichal in that game.1963 we see a a, one of the classic games that you will probably never see again a 16-inningcomplete game by both pitchers it was the Giants and the Milwaukee Braves again a 16 inning duelbetween future Hall of Famer Warren Spahn. He was on the downside of his career approaching 40years of age and while Marichal who was very early in his career. The game ended at 12:31 AM as Irecall. And Willie Mays hit a homerun in the bottom of the 16th innings to win the game one to nothing.And that that is truly one of the classics in the in the history of baseball, just a couple of anecdotesto go with that. Giants' manager Alvin Dark wanted to take Marichal out of the game as it as it grewinto extra innings. And Marichal being the young buck that he was said absolutely not, that guy overthere in the other dock out; he is almost 40 years old and look at he is still pitching. And I believe thatthat night Warren Spahn threw through 204 pitches and I believe Marichal threw a 198. And the otheranecdote to go with that story is that after pitching the top of the 16th inning, Marichal didn't run off thefield. He walked off the field waiting for Willie Mays who was running from center field and he justturned to Willie and he said "Chico" which is one of the nicknames that Willie Mays has. And he saidChico; I don't think I can go anymore. And that Willie Mays says that's okay I am going to end it. AndMays was actually not the first batter up in that bottom of 16th innings. Harvey Kane, another futureHall of Famer I believe is Harvey Kane in the Hall of fame? Yeah. A great player flew out to centerfield and then and then Mays then hit the homerun to end the game.1965, you know you talk about Ichiro Suzuki, now and Okajima and and all of the Japaneseinfluence in baseball. But actually the Giants were the first team ever to employ a pitcher from Japan inthe Major League. His name was Masanori Murakimi. He pitched for the Giants fro two years, 64' and65'. He was a lefthander. He had a tremendous fast ball and due to negotiations with his his formerteam, they demanded him to come back to Japan where he went on to a great career there pitching intothe 19 well end of the 19 end of the 1970's as a relief pitcher. In fact he came back to the Giants toPhoenix Arizona, I believe in 1979 spring training and he nearly made the team once again severalyears later. 1967, we see Mike McCormick, one of the original bonus babies with the original NewYork Giants in 1957 be the only National Cy Young Award winner that the Giants have everproduced. You think about the pitchers that the Giants have had, Marichal and Perry especially in the1960's. Juan Marichal has the most victories of any Major League Pitcher in the 1960's a 191. Neverwon a Cy Young Award. And you talk about Koufax and Drysdale when you couple Marichal andPerry together along the same period; that those are the two Dodgers pitched, actually the the twoDodgers only have only won seven more games in that same time span. So Marichal and Perry, I'lltake them any any time in a double header.1968, Bobby Bonds comes along again. And in his first Major League Game, hits a Grand-slam againstthe Dodgers. He was the first player since I think, 1899 to hit a Grand-slam in his first Major Leaguegame, went on to a great career with the Giants. I just want to say something about Bobby. He was myfavorite player when I was growing up as a child and in fact, I still have my Bobby Bonds baseballgloves. And Bobby was probably the first player to incorporate speed and power into the game. Therehad been fast players before; Willie Mays was quite fast. But speed had never really been utilized as aweapon in the game. And you can just image Bonds patrolling the outfield with Willie Mays out there.And that famous catch it's mentioned in the book, "The game of the Week 1970". They still show iton TV every once in a while, it was against the Cincinnati Reds and where Bonds and Mays go upagainst the fence to try to catch a ball and Mays jumps up so high to catch the ball over Bonds that hisknee actually knocked knocked him in the in the jaw and knocked out Bobby Bonds; and Mays stillcaught the ball. And so that's one of the things that I remember.But Bobby was Bobby was a great player; obviously he produced perhaps the greatest player inMajor League Baseball history with his son. But you know in a lot of ways Bobby had more toolsthan Barry did. Bobby certainly was a better outfielder in terms of fielding - Bonds Barry Bonds hasa couple of Gold Gloves but Bobby had a lot of range and he had a great arm and he made a little bitmore speed than Barry. Barry is no doubt the better hitter. But Bobby still holds a lot of records in theNational League for Leadoff Homeruns in the game. He was probably one of the first quintessentialLeadoff batters in Major League history. And I can't say enough about him and I miss him a lot.1968, Gaylord Perry pitches one of his no hitters against the St. Louis Cardinals at Candlestick Park. Imention Marichal being a dominant pitcher. Mays and McCovey let's talk about them playing togetherfor 20 years or so; one of the most prolific home run duos in Major League history. In fact together thetwo of them totaled 800 home runs between them. And as a duo that is second only two Hank Aaronand Eddie Mathews 863 home runs. So they actually had more home runs together in their tenure thaneven Gehrig and Ruth did with the Yankees. In 1970 the Giants went to Japan in spring training in themonth of March. They were the only team ever to go to Japan prior o the start of a season. They playeda nine game schedule there and they hold the dubious distinction of being only Major League team totravel to Japan and return with a losing record. They won only three of those nine games. So it wasreally a poor decision to do that. It was Horace Stoneham's little soiree. It was kind of a more of abig party for him and he loaded up the whole team.One of the things though that the couple of things that came out of that trip was in 19 March 21st1970 at Tokyo stadium, it was a monumental game between the San Francisco Giants and the YomiuriGiants the Tokyo Giants of the Japanese Central League and Sadaharu Oh who holds the world'sprofessional record from most homeruns in a career at 868, I don't know if anybody will ever get to868 including Barry Bonds played in that game for Tokyo and actually hit a homerun in that game.So you have Mays and McCovey and Oh in that same game playing with each other and that's aquick math that's probably close to a 2000 homeruns in that game. KTVU Channel 2 which theGiants still utilize as one of their flagships televised that game from Tokyo. I remember watching thatgame on a Friday night. It was the first satellite sporting event to be televised from Asia to anothercontinent, from one continent to another. And so it was a very unique situation at the time.Again a few more points about Juan Marichal and his dominance. I keep going back to Juan but themore and more research I do on the man, the more and more numbers that I uncover are as justabsolutely astounding. He pitched in eight All Star games and gave up one run in eighteen innings.That is the second most innings ever pitched in All Star competition and that's a 0.5 Earn RunAverage, a 113 batting average against him, two win of Most Valuable Player award. And also hisopening day dominance he always got the ball in opening day. He was six and two lifetime onopening day with quite a few strikeouts in complete games.1972 we have a unique record that was a set by a pitcher named Jim Barr. I don't know if anybodyremembers Jim Barr. He is the pitching coach today at Sacramento State University. He retired 41consecutive batters over a two game span. Now I say 41 batters, he must have thrown a no hitter or hada perfect game in there, but he didn't. It was the last six innings of one game and then carried over intothe first four innings of the next game. But that still is an all time record. It has been approached in thelast few years by David Wells and Randy Johnson and so forth, but 41 consecutive batters retiredagainst the Pirates and the Cardinals. The last Giants no hitter is anybody remember the last Giantsno hitter. And it was 1976 at Atlanta by a guy named John, "The Count" Montefusco. He came on in1974 with a lot of style. He was kind of the guy with the style before Mark Fidrych came on the scene;although he didn't talk to the baseball like Mark Fidrych did.Another thing that I would like to bring up and I remember this as a child; in the mid 70s Giantsattendance was sagging quite a bit and for those that had ever been to Candlestick Park youremember the wind at Candlestick Park, how treacherous that was. If you can visualize the hotdograpper flying around the park and then ultimately begin sucked up against the centerfield fence and therefor several innings. The great Karl Wallenda, the high-wire artist I think he is since passed away in anaccident in Puerto Rico was hired by the Giants. They strung a wire from one end of the stadium tothe other. And between games of a double header against the Pirates, he manipulated that high-wireand successfully. And I can only imagine what he had to incur with the wind there. So that's one thingthat a lot of people forget. But I think it's kind of unique.In 1980 the Giants had a triple play turned by three rookies in the same game. It was Guy Sularz, RichMurray and the third guy Joe Patini Joe Patini, three rookies at the time and they all turned a tripleplay together. 1981, Vida Blue who came come over from the Oakland Athletics' in 1978 and thentraded a Bay Area Favorite, won the All Star Game for the National League at Cleveland, became thefirst pitcher in history to have won the game for both American and Nation Leagues. 1986, we seeyoung Will "the Thrill" Clark come on the scene, he hits a homerun and it first Major League batagainst Nolan Ryan at the Astrodome, a preview of things to come for "Will the Thrill." He also hewas so good he had two nick names. They also called him The Natural like from the movie. 1989,perhaps the most memorable moment for myself was when Dave Dravecky came back from a boutwith cancer, a tumor in his left arm, his pitching arm and he had fought all the way back and then onAugust day, Thursday afternoon August 10 1989, he took on the Cincinnati Reds at Candlestick Parkand he won that game four to three, and the Giants were in the big race at the time and five days later inMontreal, he earned the start again. And I believe in the sixth inning there his armed snapped, cancerhad come back and Dave never pitched ever again. And he actually only pitched in 23 games as a Giantand those two wins in 1989 are as important as any other wins that that team got that year. It helpedthem propel into the World Series. I will never forget Will Clark coming to his aid on the pitcher'smound there at Olympic Stadium after his arm had snapped and he had the unfortunate accident ofbreaking the arm again in the 1989 National League Championship Series celebration after they beatthe Cubs. Everybody went out on to the field and Dave got caught underneath the mound of people andhis arm was broken again. And yet since he has since had it amputated and he has been living a greatlife, he is a preaching a lot of the gospel now. And I saw him last week at the reunion and he is doingquite well.That 1989 championship series against the Cubs sorry the Giants won the National League pennantfor the first time in 27 years. And you want to talk about dominance; Will Clarke hit 6.50 in that series.He had 13 hits and 28 bats and really dominated. 1993, we see John Burkett and Bill Swift, two 20 andgame winners in the same starting rotation. In 1993 the team won a 103 games, yet to not win theNational League's Western Division title. Atlanta had a 104 wins that year. It was the last year beforethe wild card, perhaps the best team that the Giants had ever had. That was the only year that WillClark, Matt Williams and Barry Bonds all played together. You talk about a murderous row in the lineup. They had two 20 game winners. They had a bull pen, they had Rod Beck Kevin Mitchellwas I don't believe Kevin was with the team then. Robby Thompson, Jose Uribe who has sincepassed away, a very strong team and great heart break. I don't know if you recall the last game of theseason. They went to Los Angeles. They had to win that game in order to force a tie, to face Atlanta ina one game play off. And the Giants started a little known pitcher named Solomon Torres and theGiants got beaten 12 to one by that day by the Dodgers and just a horrible day all around for theGiants. I remember Matt Williams talking about that game and how much chatter he got from theDodgers dug out playing third base and the guy leading the charge was Orel Hershiser talking smack,who later would become a Giant for one year. And I remember Will Clark telling me a story one timeabout how the Giants ownership had told him that he wasn't going to be back for the 1994 season.They had looked they were looking elsewhere and that they decided that they wanted to to try to getsome pitching. So they were going to allow Will to become a free agent, Does anybody who knowswho that pitcher was that they signed instead of Will Clark? Mark Portugal. Enough said. 1995, MikeBenjamin, a life time 229 hitter in his baseball career sets a Major League record for most hits in threeconsecutive games played. He had 14 hits in three games. Five hits, five hits and four hits, threeconsecutive games and probably never got more than 50 hits in his whole career.Another thing I would like to bring up that's in the book is the native San Franciscans that have playedfor the Giants. Does anybody knows how many native San Franciscans have played for the Giants? No.Well, there has been only a handful. And the first one was Alan Gallagher in 1970, third baseman fromMission High School in San Francisco, they used to call him Dirty Al. He used to get his uniform dirtyquite a bit. And the thing that I remember about Alan Gallagher is like Pete Rose, when Alan Gallagherdrew a walk he would run to first base. He would drop his bat and he would run, he would not walk.John Baccabella who lives here in Marin, I have done some clinics with John, played for theGiants in 1974, he spent a majority of his career I think with the Cubs and with the Expos, a SantaClara University graduate, John was born in San Francisco. Ken Reads who spent most of his youth inSan Mateo County was also born in San Francisco, played for the Giants one year. Fred Brining hadfour years with San Francisco, went to San Francisco's Lincoln High School. Mike Vail, anoutfielder in 1983. Keith Comstock who was just out there at the reunion last week. Willie McGee, youremember Willie McGee who had a lot of success with the St. Louis Cardinals; he now lives over inHercules here. Jalal Leach who played eight games with the Giants in 2001, now up in the SacramentoArea. And Tyler Walker, UC Berkeley pitcher, University High School in San Francisco, left theGiants in 06' to go to the Devil Rays and he has since come back but he has had a reconstructivesurgery on his arm, so I am not sure what his future year his future career with the Giants is going tobe.The first splash hit when the Giants moved into the new park, came in May of 2000, of course it wasBarry Bonds who hit that off the former Giant Rich Rodriguez against the New York Mets. There havebeen 44 splash hits by the Giants at the new park, 34 of them belong to Barry Bonds. May 24th 2000 wesee Shawn Estes pitch a complete game shut out and hit a Grand-slam homerun against the MontrealExpos, the giants won the game 18 to nothing. It's the only Grand-slam homerun hit by a Giantspitcher in their San Francisco years and it was the first time that a pitcher had hit a Grand-slamhomerun and a complete game and a shut out I think since the early part of the last century. And I havequite a few other things about Barry Bonds and so forth but I kind of want to move things alongbecause the part about this that I like the best is to talk about my 50th anniversary, golden anniversaryteam that I select and then also have some interaction with the audience.So if I walk away from this can you still hear me or stay within okay, okay, all right. Okay, so Ipicked them by position and I also picked a manager and then I picked the all time 50th anniversaryfranchise player. So a couple of guys that did not make the team, but they were my favorites were WillClark, first baseman with the Giant, too much competition at that position, Kevin Mitchell who wonthe 1989 Most Valuable Player for the National League and Robb Nen, probably one pf the bestrelievers, closers in base ball history. The Giants Giants rode him as far as he could take them. In2002 his arm was hanging by by a tendon and you know; we fell a couple of games short. Themanager for the team; I selected Dusty Baker, there has been several managers in Giants history thathave been quite successful. I had mentioned Hum Baby Roger Craig earlier, but Dusty was at the helmfor 10 years and I felt that not only was Dusty successful as a manager in terms of wins but he was alsosuccessful in terms of his managing of talent and dealing with situations. Dusty had to deal a lot withthe with the circus that was going on in 2001 and other years; with Bonds in that clubhouse. Dustyhad to deal with a lot of personalities, a lot of different things across racial lines and I think that thething I like about Dusty the best is I don't I don't believe Dusty sees color. I think Dusty just look atplayers and as men and manages them accordingly. And I think he is a great communicator so,therefore I picked Dusty Baker as my all time manager for the Giants.Left handed relief pitcher, the Giants haven't had a lot of left handed relievers over the years. The goodones always seem to be right handers and I will talk a little bit more about them in a few moments. ButGary Lavelle was one that - that came on to the scene in the late 70s and had a very successful career,with the Giants, he was one of the original fire men came in to put out the fire and preserve the win inthose days if you recall the guys who came in and got the saves they didn't, they didn't come in andjust pitched the three batters in the ninth inning, they would come in and pitch three innings, theywould come in and pitch the seventh eighth and ninth innings. So they were the set up guy, the secondset up guy and the closer all rolled in to one. And if you go back and you look at Lee Smith and RichGossage who are not in the hall of fame, couple of the great closers in history and you look at theirrecord they had a lot of games that they earn saves that they pitched two or three or more innings. Righthanded relief pitcher, I selected Rod Beck and unfortunately Rod just passed away in the last couple ofmonths in Arizona and he was very intimidating figure what that moustache as a lot of lot of closersare. He had great size but he also had a great heart and great spirit and he was a great Giant and had alot of success. I think he still holds the record for most saves in a season for the Giants and I know he ismissed by all. A good friend of mine Eric Johnson that played for the Giants in the mid 1990s that Ihave coached with was Rod Beck's roommate in the Minor Leagues and I know I know talking tohim that he will be sorely missed.My left handed starting pitcher I have Vida Blue. As mentioned earlier Vida was a Bay Area favorite.He came on the scene in the early 70s with the Oakland As and led them to three WorldChampionships in a row. Perhaps one of the biggest trades in Giants history and one of their fewsuccessful ones, when the picked up Vida right before the regular season started in 1978; immediatelyhad an impact on a team that had been struggling through that decade and took that team all the waytill the end of the season they were in contention for the National League West title with another groupof young players. As mentioned Vida was the first to win the to be the winning pitcher in the All Stargame for both leagues. He actually was also the first starter; first to appear starter for both leagues.Right handed starting pitcher, you know we have talked about Juan Marichal all afternoon here. I havetalked you about his accolades. Perhaps you know one one of the certainly five or 10 best startingpitchers in the history of the game. As a note, I have mentioned earlier about Juan Marichal neverearning the Cy Young Award, but I wanted to tell you that his son is law is Pedro Martinez, who is outright now, who has pitched successfully for the Boston red sox in the New York Mets. And I thinkPedro has won one, three or four sigh young awards and in tribute to his father in law, in theDominican Republic, Pedro gave one of his awards to Juan Marichal. So that was a great gesture on hispart. Utility bench player, I have Orlando Cepeda, the baby bull, mentioned, again it's a tough line upto crack Orlando, was the first basemen, as well as McCovey they competed for several years, beforethe giants let Cepeda go, in a horrible trade eat for a left handed picture named Ray Sadecki in 1966,1967, Orlando was the nationally most valuable player with the St Louis cardinals and the worldchampion. Orlando still works for the giants today, he lives here in the bay area over in Fairfield, nowhe has had a little bit little bit of trouble lately, but we we hope every thing works out well for the -the baby bull. Yeah, he is still great, he has two nick names, he is not only the baby bull, but he is also aCha-cha, and Cha-cha, because he really like that salsa music, when he came up and the baby bull,because lot of people don't realize that in Puerto Rico, his father who is another successful base ballplayer and his day was the big bull, so you have got big bull and baby bull. Right fielder talked aboutBobby Bonds it links earlier again power and speed, one of the great players, I wish he could had alonger career with the Giants, he ran into some - some problems too and he was traded away in ahorrible trade and then and that bouncing around is seven or eight teams, tell his career was over,certainly it looked early in his career that Bobby would be hall of famer as well and I just wish as hecould have stayed on track because I think, - I think his flat would look great in Coopers town.Center fielder, I guess you guys all know who who, I selected that position number 24, Willie Mays'sagain came to San Francesco with the giants, when they relocated in 1958. Not always - wasn't thatwarmly greeted by the fans, because they look at Willie as being one of New York's own, so certainly atthat time, when Cepeda came on the scene in 58 and McCovey came on the scene in 59, they were trueSan Francisco giants and so even today, you have to look at Orlando, and McCovey and even JuanMarichal as being the most beloved San Francesco giants, in history and of course Will Clark in theretoo with the new generations. Left field, I have Berry Bonds, we could sit here, all day talking about thestatistics, the home runs, the slugging, the stolen bases, the walks, how many home runs would he have,if they didn't walk him all the time. You know and I I want to also make a statement, that this book,that I wrote, is a celebration of giants history, it's a celebration of the successes of the teams, and theplayers and there is no controversy in this book, and I don't mention that word steroids in there once, Iam kind of ambivalent about that whole topic, if you want my opinion, you can ask me after I havewritten about it in my news paper and if you want to follow up on that particular scenario there is a lotof books, that I could turn it towards for that if you like.Catcher, the giants haven't always been blessed with a lot of great catchers in the 50 years, I chooseDick Deeds, who played with the team for four years from 1967 to 1970, 1970 was his all star year, hiscareer year, he had a 112 RBIs with 27 home runs, hit 300. He was the guy that was on deck in theAll-star game in 1970, if you recall, Pete Rose coming around third base and wiping Ray Fosse off themap, at home play, Deeds was on deck, there increased rows when he scored the winning run, Deedsactually had the home run as a pinch hitter in the bottom of the ninth inning in that game as well, whichas per he nationally come back in the ultimately one and 12 innings. A short stop I have RichAurilia who is back with the club this year, one of my mom's favorites along with Omarright, yeah and Rich was had some great years with the giants earlier in the year around 2000, 2001,2002 season he was a major part in that team then went to the world series and won the national leagueif you know two coupled again with Jeff Kent who won a MVP earlier and of course Barry Bonds, thethree of them were a pretty formidable trio in terms of their power and when we talk about power, Imentioned about Mason McCovey being second only to Aaron and Mathews in terms of career homeruns. The year that Barry hits 73 in 2001 when you couple that I believe with, when you couple thatwith the 37 I think that Aurilia a hit that year, that is the second most in history to Morris and Mantleon 1961. Morris hit 61 but Mantel came in second with 54 that year.Third base I have Matt Williams and other all time giant favorite he didn't make it to the reunion lastweek for some reason Matt is a broadcaster with the Arizona Diamond backs, now he is also a partowner of the team that go lot of ex-Giants down there leading that organization had a little bit ofdifficulty when he first came up, he was a great fast ball hitter. He couldn't hit a curve ball. Giantswere very patient with him and he was able to work towards that and ended up in a pretty dawn goodhitter and a very feared power hitter and had several good years with the giants and then one of the mostcontroversial trades he was traded essentially for Jeff Kent back in 1995 and went to the CleavelandIndians. Second base I did select Jeff Kent that was a really difficult one as mentioned RobbyThompson, that was another great Giant perhaps the best double play combo, Uribe, Thompsonbut Tito Fuentes and Chris Spire in the early 70s was another great second base/ short stop combo but Jeff Kentalso brought a lot of power to the table, a lot of friends brought it in and it is mentioned he did have amost valuable player award in there.First base I selected Willie McCovey, Stretch, Big Mack Certainly perhaps one of the most fearedhitters of this generation Mays had more home runs but McCovey always seem to be able to punctuatethe situation. 18 grand slam home runs in his career as the most in national league history was secondall time to Lou Gehrig's 23 until recently I think when Robin Ventura and Manny Ramirez passed himwith 19. And he had I think three pin shoot grant slam home runs in his career and he was able toalways come off the bench and seemly get that big hit and so one of the great power hitters in thehistory of the game.So that is the team now that leads me to the all-time fiftieth anniversary franchise player and youprobably know that it is down to between two players and does anybody have an idea or want to guesswho I selected as the all-time player? I hear Mays' - anybody think it is Bonds? You do?. It is apossibility, sure. I mean Bobby or Barry. Yes its Willie Mays's, I selected Willie Mays's. I gave this alot of thought, that was probably the last thing that I did with this book and I had pretty essentially thebook written for the last year before I had it published and I gave it to a lot of thought and I talked to alot of people, I talked to a lot of Giant fans, the fan on the street, I talked to a lot of colleagues in themedia and well there is no doubt about Barry's numbers and you know I think the last chapter, the lastcouple of chapters has yet to be written in the Barry Bonds saga. I think there is still something that isreal, will need to find out and we will found out and it is hard to say how Bonds will be looked upon inhistory as we go forward 25 or 50 years from now. But certainly what Willie Mays's brought to thegame, the five tools as they talked about in baseball, one of the original five tool players hit with powerhit for power, hit for average run field and throw and certainly Mays's brought all of that to the tableand more and as I mentioned earlier you know Barry Bonds has the five tools also but he is not the bestfive tool player in his family perhaps you know with his father being the better fielder having strong - astronger arm and having more speed. So we know Barry is a better hitter but that seems to me to bemore one dimensional. Now he has also hit for average and power but I think there is no denying theimpact that will Willie Mays's had on the game.